‘Only Inaction Is Disgraceful’: French Operations Under Joffre, 1914–1916

Abstract

The historiography of the First World War has been overshadowed by a single monolith for generations: the spectre of the war’s roughly ten million military dead. That figure, unimaginably high, has for decades been treated as an argument in and of itself for the obvious futility of the conflict. One can trace the argument’s lineage back to Remarque, the war poets, AJP Taylor, Joan Littlewood and the many other influential writers who have dominated public perceptions of the war. On a purely national level many Britons still wonder why they participated in a Continental war, and some argue outright that Britain should have remained neutral.¹ Around the world casual observers openly wonder with incomprehension why the entire war was fought at all. While the historiography concerning the causes of the First World War is very mature, and continues to fruitfully evolve, there is still work to be done to explain (if not necessarily to ‘justify’) why the war was fought in the manner it was.²